Art Works: Homage To Catalonians by Katrine Brosnan

I think every city has a recognisable identity, and it really comes across in the people you see at work or at play. This piece is a coming-together of the drawings I did while people-watching on a trip to Barcelona. I drew characters that caught my eye on buses, on the beach in Sitges and in the many lovely cafés in the city.

My prints start out as line drawings; I always bring a sketchpad with me wherever I go, and find I have more time to doodle and draw when on holiday. These characters were drawn from life with my trusty fineliner, and later drawn digitally so I could arrange a composition and edit my sketchbook into a single print.

At the time I was reading Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, hence the title - in honour of all the lovely people I met on my trip. I started looking through my drawings, the photos I’d taken and all the other bits of ephemera I picked up along the way and compiled the final design for the print. I then turned my sketchpad drawings into two images for a silk screen and created the screen print in my home studio. I had some nice feedback at a recent craft fair; a lady who had spent some time in Barcelona really connected with the print as the characters portrayed reminded her of the city. Getting comments is always lovely and very encouraging.

After studying fine art at Nottingham Trent, my work has continued to evolve; I now concentrate on simple line based illustrations, playing with traditional printmaking techniques such as screenprinting, letterpress and lino-cuts. I love the process and history connected with printmaking; it’s so exciting to see these techniques enjoying a resurgence at the moment. The ink, the plates, the presses and the action of printing are very compelling for me and satisfy my urge to make. Some of my latest work is creating illustrations for functional items such as bags, ceramics and brooches.

If I had the luxury of time and money I would like to experiment more with making accessible household designs for things such as wallpaper, or larger ceramic pieces completely from scratch. I’m always expanding my range of work and I would like to carry on and eventually work full time as an illustrator and printmaker.

At the moment I work part time for a charity, so I fit in my illustrating and printmaking on my day off and at weekends. I am a member of Leicester Print Workshop which is a very supportive environment to make and develop my work. I find inspiration in lots of places, including my bus trips to work which also provide great thinking time.